On Friday, after school, I got on a bus to head to Marbella to visit my friend Tonisha who I met in Peru when we studied together there. Marbella is in the south of Spain and on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The bus ride was about 8 hours long and it went pretty quickly. I blogged for the majority of the time and if you haven't seen already, I am now officially caught up on all of my blogging. So go and read about all of my travels that I have been on since Spring break! Anyway, once I got to Marbella, Tonisha and her boyfriend, Ross, picked me up from the bus station and we walked back to Tonisha's house. I ate dinner and then we just talked the rest of the night. It was great catching up for a little bit, then it was off to bed.
Saturday, May 24th
On Saturday we were going to go to Smurftown, actually known as Júzcar. Júzcar is a small little town in southern Spain and in 2011 it turned from a town of white to a town of smurf blue. Sony Pictures painted it smurf blue to promote the Smurf movie and the town agreed. When the time came to paint it back to white, the town voted to leave it blue because it had brought so many tourists to the town. Well, it was going to take Tonisha and I a lot of effort to figure out how to get to the town, so we didn't end up going, but here's a picture.
Instead of going to Júzcar, we chose a different place that is also super cool and about an hour away--Gibraltar! On the bus, we talked a lot and got to see some beautiful views of the mountains and coastline. We also met an older couple from Yorkshire, England and they were really nice, but super difficult to understand. Tonisha and I couldn't help but laugh about it later because we couldn't understand anything they were saying..and they were speaking English! It was comical. Anyway, once we got to La Linea de la Concepción, which is on the Spain side, we walked to Gibraltar. We breezed through customs and got no stamp :( and then we walked across the airport runway to get into town. I wish I was kidding, but I'm not. You literally have to walk or drive across the runway to get to town. My dad asked me if I looked both ways..of course I did! We didn't get stopped by a plane, but this is what it would look like if we had.
Once we were in Gibraltar, we found an ATM to take out money in pounds, which I didn't even think about before arriving. They take euros too, though, but we got pounds anyway. Then, we sat down to have an English lunch. I got shepherd's pie and it was so good and our waitress was really spunky so that was fun! :D Tonisha and I sat at lunch for so long just catching up some more and talking about life! We probably sat for too long because I'm sure we didn't see all we could of Gibraltar, but I don't regret it one bit. It was great to just sit and talk to my friend. After we finally got up from lunch, we made our way to the cable car that took us up to the Rock of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is just a really unique and strange place. For one, it's attached to Spain, but it's British. They have a mountain that just juts out of the ground from nowhere. They have a language called Llanito, which is a mixture of English and Spanish. An airport that is just right there in the middle of things. And apes. And it's a lot bigger than it seems. And I'm sure I can think of more things, but yea...it is just one peculiar little place, and I liked it. Anyway, we went up to the rock where there are wild apes, the Barbary macaques. They just hang out and aren't scared of humans. They are known to grab things though, but this did not happen to me luckily. Ha. Also, they supposedly bite and if you feed them, you can be charged up to 4000 pounds! Holy cow! We didn't risk it. We walked around for a little bit up top and then we made our way back down to town.
An airplane getting ready to land
Morocco, Spain, and Gibraltar
Tonisha and I
Once we got back down to town, our plan was to head to Europa Point, which is the southernmost tip of Gibraltar. We sat at the wrong bus stop for quite awhile before learning that it was the wrong bus stop, so once we got to the right bus stop, we sat there for awhile, too. We started questioning whether we had time to go anymore because we had to make it back to the bus station to go back to Marbella. Right when we were deciding to leave, the bus pulled up so we got on. And what happened next was also pretty comical. Once we got to Europa Point, it was the end of the bus route, so the bus waited a little bit to start its next week. So what did we do? We ran to the point, took pictures, and ran to get back on the bus. It was definitely a drive by photo shooting. Ha. Tonisha said that we should have just stayed on the bus and taken pictures. And after we told the story to Tonisha's boyfriend, he told us that we should've had this music playing in the background...
That gave us a good laugh, because it was seriously like that! :D
At Europa Point
After our quick photo shoot, we got back on the bus and took it to the end of the route, which was near the border. We walked back across the airport runway and back into Spain and made it back to the bus station in time to return to Marbella. Once we got back to Marbella, we went home and relaxed. We watched part of the Real Madrid and Atletico game, which was an important one for Spain. Tonisha and Ross made a delicious pizza and pasta dinner! And we skyped our friend Mark! He is getting married next on June 7th, which is just awesome and so exciting! We are so happy for him. "I love love."
Skyping Mark
Anyway, we were skyping Mark at the end of the Atleti vs. Real Madrid game and somehow, Real Madrid won 4-1. Atlético (who I was routing for) was winning for the whole game 1-0 and with two minutes left Real Madrid scored, pushing it into extra time. Then, they somehow scored three more points. So not cool! But, either way, the trophy was coming back to Madrid, so that's cool I guess. What was crazy was that even in Marbella, people were celebrating. There were people constantly driving by for the next few hours honking and waving flags, fireworks going off, etc. It was crazy, so I can only imagine what Madrid was like. I saw the people flocking to Cibeles on the news. Anyway, once the honking finally stopped. We were able to go to sleep and I slept like a baby.
Sunday, May 25th
On Sunday, we got a little early and went to have churros with chocolate for breakfast! They were delicious and I'm so glad that we got up early for them. Then, we walked to a church that Ross had discovered only a few weeks before. It was an English-speaking church ran by these two elderly Brits. They were so cute. The church was tiny and they played there hymn music on a C.D. player. It was so quaint and the people were so nice. After the service, we sat down to have tea/coffee and we met a man from the Netherlands who was a retired pilot. He used to work for KLM and then became a teacher for pilots later. His whole family was connected to flying in some way or another, which was cool. And he taught us a life lesson. You know those retired people that say "I feel like I never worked a day in my life." Well, that was this man and he said that he was forced to retire because of his age, but he wished he was still doing it. I hope and pray that when it gets to be that time for me that I feel the same way about my career. It really should be something you love to do. I hope I can find as much joy in teaching that he has found with flying. I hope that I can avoid getting burned out before I retire. Here's to hoping. :) I guess I have to get a job first before I get to that point though. :P
After church, we walked to Ross' apartment to eat lunch and to lay by the pool. We laid there for hours just soaking up the sun! We napped, we read, we relaxed, and it was wonderful. Then, after that, Tonisha and I took the bus back to her place, ate dinner, and then she walked me to the bus station to take the overnight bus back home. To read my blog for the day that I arrived home, click here. It was an amazing weekend and I'm so glad that I got to see Tonisha before she left Spain. Every other community other than Madrid has finished school already, so Tonisha and Ross are heading home tomorrow, which is crazy. And what's even crazy is that I have less than a month left to make the most out of my time here in Spain. However, I'm done with the weekend traveling. Marbella was my last full weekend trip and it was the perfect one to end on. :) And that concludes this blog post.
Once we were in Gibraltar, we found an ATM to take out money in pounds, which I didn't even think about before arriving. They take euros too, though, but we got pounds anyway. Then, we sat down to have an English lunch. I got shepherd's pie and it was so good and our waitress was really spunky so that was fun! :D Tonisha and I sat at lunch for so long just catching up some more and talking about life! We probably sat for too long because I'm sure we didn't see all we could of Gibraltar, but I don't regret it one bit. It was great to just sit and talk to my friend. After we finally got up from lunch, we made our way to the cable car that took us up to the Rock of Gibraltar. Gibraltar is just a really unique and strange place. For one, it's attached to Spain, but it's British. They have a mountain that just juts out of the ground from nowhere. They have a language called Llanito, which is a mixture of English and Spanish. An airport that is just right there in the middle of things. And apes. And it's a lot bigger than it seems. And I'm sure I can think of more things, but yea...it is just one peculiar little place, and I liked it. Anyway, we went up to the rock where there are wild apes, the Barbary macaques. They just hang out and aren't scared of humans. They are known to grab things though, but this did not happen to me luckily. Ha. Also, they supposedly bite and if you feed them, you can be charged up to 4000 pounds! Holy cow! We didn't risk it. We walked around for a little bit up top and then we made our way back down to town.
No comments:
Post a Comment